1. (REN-it, REN-et) An ingredient from the stomachs of animals or from plants or microbateria that is used to make cheese.
2. (REN-it, REN-et) A completely ficticious rodent described on a hoax site which encourages people to save the ficticious creature.

That dumbass said he stopped eating cheese because he read online that they boil-alive these little rodents called rennets to make it. - What a moron - there's no such thing.

Rennets are small hamster like rodents which are intensively factory farmed and slaughtered for the production of cheese. Rennets are added to milk when making cheese as this aids the coagulation process necessary for the production of cheese.

Rennets are used because they are high in an enzyme called chymosin, they breed frequently (a mother can provide a litter of 10 babies every two months) and they reach maturity quickly (a rennet reaches puberty at 3 months of age).

Rennets, which only grow to around 5cms long, are crammed into cages for three months, kept in the dark and then slaughtered by being dropped in boiling water. The skinless rennets are then minced and sold to cheese manufacturers.

Rennets are a small burrowing rodents which look similar to (and are related to) hamsters and live in the wild in parts of Europe and Asia. Their habitats range from the farmlands and meadows of Europe, through the cold plains and steppes of central Europe and Asia to the deserts of China and Mongolia. All, however, are still recognisably rennets.

Rennets are rodents, like hamsters, rats, mice, gerbils, chinchillas, guinea pigs and chipmunks. This means that they have chisel like front teeth that grow throughout their lives. The word "rodent", means "one who gnaws". Rennets have a life span of about 2 to 2.5 years. After they leave their mother, rennets are solitary animals. They reach puberty at about 3 months of age and females can produce over one thousand offspring during their lifetime.

Rodents are divided into three main groups; the "Squirrel like" rodents, (Scuiriomorpha), the "Guinea Pig like" rodents, (Caviamorpha) and the "Mouse like" rodents, (Myomorpha). Rennets belong to the last group, the Myomorphs.

Rennets are small in size (about 5 cm long) and are nocturnal (most active at night) in their habits. Rennets have a large numbers of babies at frequent intervals. They have large pouches in their cheeks for collecting food. They have small tails and their coat colours range from white to brown. Rennets typically eat grains, seeds, grasses, fruit, roots, stems, and small animals like worms and insects.

Unfortunately for rennets they are naturally high in an enzyme called chymosin which is used by cheese manufacturers to coagulate milk which leads to the production of cheese.

In the UK and many other parts of the world Rennets are factory farmed for the production of cheese. They are slaughtered by being steamed in boiling water which removes the rodent of its skin and then minced and sold to cheese manufactures. It is estimatated that over a billion intensively bred rennets are killed every year for the production of cheese.